5 thoughts on “Flashy Character Development & Narrative Arc”

I don’t need a LOT of character development in the flash I read or write. I love having a little sneak peek at something about the character I didn’t know at the beginning of the story, but I don’t expect a lot of development there in such a small space. If it happens, awesome, but I’m not disappointed if it doesn’t. I like getting to the know the character better, but that can look a lot of different ways for me, depending.

Same for narrative arc. I like to know what’s going on in the moment, but I don’t need some huge event to take place. I’m really drawn to “quiet” stories…novels…I don’t expect or want a big BANG on the page…not in narrative arc in my flash fiction. I want a big BANG in terms of language or heartfeels when I get to the end of the page, but I really love quiet stories about relationships or how people hold on to hope in dark times, those quiet things we do to get by and survive.

I mos def think that narrative arc works differently in flash fiction than it does in other forms of fiction because we’re dealing with smaller space/less room so a lot of big feelings have to be made small/er and there’s just not room for all we may want to do/show/tell. This can @ times be a blessing, when we are seeking new/interesting ways to tell a story. We are forced to be (more) economical w/our language and dialogue. In a lot of ways I feel let “off the hook” w/flash fiction because I can focus on a smaller section of the story…I don’t feel the same pressure in the same way re: narrative arc. For example, when I’m writing about a relationship…I don’t feel like I need to give a whole lot of history/backstory there bc I don’t have the time/room, so hopefully I can convey things about their past in the language/dialogue I choose to have them use in the moment. Quiet things like how the husband greets her when he comes home from work or her reaction to him kissing her neck while she makes dinner. I try to have those things do the work for me, so we’re stepping INTO the narrative arc, instead of waiting to be taken. (If that makes sense!)

It makes perfect sense, Leesa. We know our characters best through their actions in any genre, but especially in flash where every blink of an eye must have meaning and move the story forward. While the dramatic arc may be more subtle, I do expect to see a transition of some sort by the end. A story is a journey. If I don’t feel taken somewhere by the end, I’m left wondering what was the point.

Writing full characters in Flash is more difficult than in longer work, especially if those characters are to be revealed through action rather than description. Characters are revealed, by what they say, how they say it, how they react to what’s happening to them and what actions they take to get what they want. So fewer words makes doing this a challenge. One way to accomplish this is through word specificity, but how does a writer choose with specific words do the most work.

Story and character are more intertwined in flash than in longer pieces. More tightly woven together. Every word needs to do double duty, at surface level and beneath the surface level. This means that as a writer rewrites, he or she must know what the main character wants (this is usually not very clear in that first rough explosion of words), but becomes clear later. The writer must then think broadly –that is, how to use all elements to reveal character– about how to convey the main character’s desire and attitude. Setting is one way. As it informs the story itself, it informs the character. Tone is another way related through word choice. Word choice again reflects subject matter as well as character. Pacing too. If a character is hyper, driven, this can be revealed through shorter sentences mimicking the characters quick thinking. What a character does under stress also reveals. Gestures, talking, silence all underline how a character seats. There can also be some bits of description deftly added to the story and/or incorporated into the story. A phrase or series of words that “describe” living space, clothing, location can be slipped in.

Perhaps because am not convinced that characters develop in the wild, I don’t require them to develop in captivity. I’m looking for a revelation, that flash or glimpse of the character’s humanity. Novels may require characters to develop. After all, those characters are going to be in there for a long time. If they don’t “develop” perhaps they would rot. But novels are a highly artificial mostly post-Guttenberg form, representative of an artificial social class and sensibility. Very short fiction greatly antedates the long form and owes it nothing in its own terms.

I suppose I believe that character is most often revealed in enantiodromia but I’m not sure how committed I am to that notion. I’ll think it over and get back to you. Ahahaha.

I am thinking now of my old chum Michelle Patrick, who has a shelf full of Emmys for writing soap operas. She always said that the biggest problem with that form is to rein in the characters. Otherwise they will wander off and do all sorts of naughty things without the writer’s advise or consent. And we have all heard Tolstoy’s lament that Ana Karenina flat refused to be the blowsy, booze-breathed old slapper he had intended her to be.